Driving means for ships&#39; gyroscopes



Nov. 3, 1925. 1,560,428

. S. G. MYERS DRIVING IEANS FOR SHIP S GYROSCOPES Filed Sent.'11. 1922F0 sAMr-r 719.1,

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WWW V Patented Nov. 3, 1925..

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SHIERFIELI) G. MYERS, 0F FREEPORT, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE SPERRY-GYRO- SCOPE COMPANY,.OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

DRIVING MEANS FOR SHIPS GYROSCOPES.

Application filed September 11, 1922. Serial No. 587,351.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SI-IIEERFIELD G. MYnRs, acitizen of the United States of America, residing at Freeport, LongIsland, in the county of Nassau and State of New York, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Driving Means for ShipsGyroscopes, of which the following is a specification. V

This invention relates to gyroscopes for ships of the type shown inPatent No. 1232619, dated July 10th, 1917, to Elmer A. Sperry for shipstabilizing and rolling apparatus. As set forth in said patents,gyroscopes of this type may be used either for stabilizing a ship or forrolling it. In such apparatus the precessional movement of the maingyroscope is controlled by a precession engine or auxiliary gyroscope.When the main gyroscope is employed as a stabilizer, its naturalprecessional movement is accelerated and retarded at proper times by theprecession motor. However, when the main gyroscope is employed to rollthe ship, it must be precessed in the opposite direction, that is,against its normal precession-a1 movement, due to the ships roll. It isobvious that with the main gyroscope running at the same high speed, itwould require a great deal more power to roll the ship than to stabilizeit. In fact, it has not heretofore been found practical to precess themain gyroscope oppositely to roll the ship while the main gyroscope wasrunning at its high speed, owing to the large power required by theprecession motor. It is also the present practice to supply power forboth the spinning motor and the precession motor by a singleturbo-generator set, so that in order to obtain full voltage for theprecession motor, when rolling the ship, full voltage would also besupplied the spinning motor. In the past, thiscondition has been met ina manner by opening the circuit of the spinning motor for the main gyrorotor, and permitting the rotor to coast, and after its speed hasreduced somewhat, precessing it by means of the precessional motorf Itis of course understood that the main gyroscope rotor commences todecelerate from the moment the spinning motor circuit is opened, butthis deceleration is further ac celerated by the unnatural precessionalmovement of the main gyroscope when rolling the ship, in which case itis, of course, performing the necessary work to roll the ship, in otherwords, the rotoris being retarded by its own gyroscopic forces. Inpractice, it is found that these factors, to gether with the bearinglosses, reduce the rotor speed several hundred R. P. M. in a very shorttime. The result is that in view of the decreasing speed of the maingyroscope rotor, an uneven rolling is obtained, also, the speed of therotor may be reduced beyond the necessary or desired limit. The periodduring which the main gyromay so operate is therefore limited, and itmay be necessary to again close the rotor circuit to accelerate therotor, thereby again varying the periodicity of the ships rolling. Whilean even roll is highly desirable in all classes of marine vessels, it isessential for naval vessels equipped with. modern gun-fire control, inwhich system the angle through which the ship rolls is a factorconsidered in aiming the guns, and their firing is timed to take placeat certain angles. In addition to these undesirable results, a furtherloss in power and time is experienced when it is desired to againoperate the main gyroscope at high speed as a stabilizer.

In order to overcome these objections, I have provlded the maingyroscope wlth a multiple speed alternating current inductionmotor, inwhich while normally the high speed is employed, either of the speedsmay be employed for stabilizing the ship and the low speed is employedfor rolling the ship. In the latter case, a fraction of the full speedis preferably employed, say or thereof.

hen supplying power to the system-described by an alternating currentturbo-generator, which is the most efficient means and that generallyemployed, it is imperative that the turbo-generator be operated atthree-quarters to full speed, preferably, the

latter, in order that the generator, which also supplies power forprecession, shall deliver current at full voltage to the precessionmotor. By the arrangement outlined, current at full voltage may at alltimes be supplied to the precessionmotor, and at the same time, the samecurrent and voltage, or a fraction thereof may be supplied to the maingyroscope spinning motor.

This arrangement also permits the fractional speed to be employed whenstarting the main gyro, an obvious advantage.

My invention further permits the use of the main gyroscope rotor.flyawheel effect in averaging the load on the turbine during precession.At the instant the precession motor starts, the heavy starting currentwill cause a reduction in the alteri iatin current to the spinningmotor, and at the end ot the rrecessie i vement t pr ss mete may be useda dynamic brake, which will increase the current to the spinning motor,h s I e pl the n r y. ut l ed in brakb ing the precession ot' thegyroscope when operated to roll the ship to, assistin driving the rotorof the main gyroscope, and further utilize the energy of said rotor toaid the precession motorwheneyer the peal; load on the motor occurs,This of ccri rse was not P sib e her tof he h apparatu s used to rollthe ship, since the. ci'rcttit to the main gyroscope spinning motor wasopen at such tlmes.

My invention will be better anderstood from the tollowing descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and its scope willbe pointed out in the ap pended claims.

I the drawings, illustrating what I now consider a preferred form of myinvention, 1 shows the several units of the sys tem, in elevation,- withparts indicated in dash lines, in operative relation and a wiringdiagram of the, several connections and control devices therefor, and

Fig. 2 is a wiring diagram of one type of the main gyroscope spinningmotor.

Referrmg 1 represents generator, 2

now to the. drawings in which an alternating current turbothe main gyro,3 the precessionalmotor and 1 the auxiliary or control gyrodiagrammatically illustrated. The main gyro 2, is provided with aspinning motor, diagrammatically indicated by dash lines, 5 in 1, havingtwo, sets of windings 6, 7, diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 2.These windings arerespectivelyarranged to give the. spinning .motor twospeeds, a high and a low speed both of which may be employed to. spinthemain gyro rotor when it is beingv used as a stabilizer, and the latterof which is employed to spin said rotor when thezmain gyro is employedto roll the ship. It is of course. understood that the main. gyro ismountedin prop er supports crosswise on the ship. as indicated by thearrow representing the. fore: and aft line of the ship, The twlo speedspinning motor may be of any conventional type, and is not illustratedin detail since this type. of motor is welllrnown in the art. The

windings 6 and 7 may bear any desired rela tion to each other.Preferably the high speed winding 6 has a small number of poles, say 4:,and the low speed winding 7 has 30114 times that number, say 12 or 16,in order that the winding 7 may give a speed of or 4 of the speed givenby winding 6. I

The circuit from the turbo-generator 1 to the spinning motor 5 isthrough leads 8 to a double throw switch 9, arranged to connect leads 8with eitherconductors 10, leading to high speed windings 6 of thespinning motor 5 or with conductors, 11, leading to the low speedwindings 7 of said motor. Qurrent is supplied to the precession motor 3from the turbo-generator through a circuit comprising leads 8 andconductor-s 12, which circuit is controlled by a pair of relays 13, 14;forrclosing and reversing said circuit respectively. The relays 13, 1A.,are respectively operated by theenergization of oppositely wound coils18, 14, which are both connected at one end to the positive side 15v ofa suitable source of direct current, At their opposite ends the coils13, 14 are connected to the negative side 16 of said source, through acircuit controlled by the auxiliary gyrcscope 4. This gyro is.diagrammatically illustrated, the construction and operation of such adevice nowbeing well known and shown in the. patents above referred to.The circuit of said coils is further controlled by a reversing switch9,. The switches 9 and 9, are arranged to be latched to, each other. bya latch 9 sox that they may be operated as a single unit orindividually. This type of switch is well known and further descriptionof its construction is not believed to be necessary.

The precession motor 3. is provided with a suitable train of gears 17,1b, 19 the latter driving a segmental gear 20 on the main 2. The motordrives said gears through a clutch 2-1, controlled by an electromagnet22, connected across the conductors 12 by conductors 23, 24. The circuitcompr sing conductor 23, electromagnet 21 and conductor 24 is controlledby a relay 25, which in turn is controlled by the auxiliary gyro 4;. Theconstruction of the precession motor 3 which is of the A. C. inductiontype, is not shown in detail, as it is well known in the art.

Having described the principle elements of my invention, its operationwill be readily understood from a brief description.

Assuming that it is desired to start the main gyro rotor, theswitch 9will; be thrown to connect conductors 8 and 11, in which case the lowspeed windings 7 are connected. to the source and the rotor is startedat low speed. The switch may now be thrown to, connect conductors 8 with10, in which case thehigh speed windingsfi of the ill) withturbogenerator 1, as the may be,

and the switch 9 is thrown upwardly to close the cir u'it controlled bythe auxiliary gyro l for stabilizing. Of course, the switch 26 is nowalso closed since the main gyro rotor when stabilizing is normally runat high speed and it is found desi able to connect the auxiliary gyro stfor stabilizing simultaneously with the starting of the main gyro rotor,the switches 9 and 9 are latched 1 to each other so that by one:inovement they may be thrown upwardly simultaneously to close thecircuit of the high speed winding of the spinning motor 5 and. to closethe circuit of the auxiliary gyro l for stabilizing. Assuming that theroll of the ship is such as to preress the gyroscopes to the right. Inthis case, the auxiliary gyro 4; closes the circuit of coil 13 therebyactuating relay 13 to close the circuit from the turbo-generator toprecession motor 3, which drives the gear 19 anti-clock-wise toaccelerate the procession of gyroscope 2. It is un derstood that therelay has been closed by the procession of the auxiliary gyro l, therebyenergizing magnet 22 to operate the clutch 21, in a well known manner.As the ship tends to roll in the opposite direction, the control gyro atwill process to the left, thereby opening the circuits of relays 13 andand clutch 21 is released. Continuing; its precession to the left, theauxiliar" gyro d closes the circuits ot' relays l t and The latter relayagain closes the circuit of magnet 22 to actuate rlutch as in the previous case, however, the relay l lreverses the circuit from theturbo-generator to precession motor 3, which now operates to acceleratethe precession of the main gyroscope 2 in the opposite direction. Thiscycle of operations is repeated so long as the main gyroscope 2 isoperated as a stabilir/ier and as previously stated, it may b sooperated while the rotor is running at either its high or low speed.

Should it hodesired to employ the apparatus described to roll the ship,the main gyroscope must be p'ecessed oppositely to its normal precessiondue to the rolling of the ship, that is, the precession motor 3 must nowprecess the main gyroscope exactly op posite to the direction in whichit processed wl'ien used as a stabilizer. In the latter case, since theprocession motor was precessing the main gyroscope in its normaldirection of travel, the load on the precession motor was not so great,and itcould operate with the main gyro rotor running at full speed. .lutin the present case, since the precession motor must overcome thegyroscopic forces, it is necessary to reduce the speed of the rotor, andit is accordingly run at its low speet. co the precession motor 3 mustnow ope e in operating oi rela' 123 and 1 4 is reversed, through the revrsing switch 10. The switches 9 and QQmay be thrown downwardlysimultaneously by a single operation to reverse the circuit controlledby the aura iliary gyro dand to close the low speed circuit ot the maingyro. The switches 9 and 9' having thus been moved to make the neocssaryonnections for rolling the ship, the operation. the several relays andauxiliar gyro is similar to that describe c. tor stabilizing the ship.Shouldthe ship be in stable equilibrium, the rolling operation may becommenced by m imally precessing the auxiliary gyro i. it will beobserved that,'during the rolling operation, while a traction of thecurrent is continuously supplied to the main gyro, the full current issimultaneously supplied to the precession motor 3, which now operatingunder its greatest load. lVhen the precession motor starts, the heavystarting current causes a reduction in the current to the spinningmotor, without perceptibly affecting the rotor which continues to spinas a ily-wheeh rat the end of the precession movement or the main gyii'o2, the precession motor may be used as a dynamic brake, therebyincreasing the current to the spinning motor.

li hile I have described my invention as embodied in concrete form inaccordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, it should beunderstood that I do not limit my invention thereto, since variousmodili- :ations thereof will suggest themselves to those skilled in theart without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope ofwhich is set forth in the sun XGCl claims.

Having described my invention, what i: claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. In a gyroscopic stabilizer tor ships, the combination with the rotoro'l the gyroscope, of a multiple speed alternating current inductionmotor for spinning said rotor at multiple speeds and means whereby therotor may be driven continuously at one speed for rolling the ship andat a dixi ercnt speed for stabilizing the ship.

2. In a gyroscope the combination with the rotor, of a multiple speedinduction motor for spinning the same, means for starting said rotor ona low speed winding and means for running said rotor on a high speedwinding.

3. In combination, a source of electric the opposite direction, the

energy, a gyroscope driven thereby, means whereby said gyroscopemay bedriven at different speeds, a precession motor driven by said source forprecessing said gyroscope, and means whereby said gyroscope may bedriven at either of its speeds While the precession motor is driven atfull voltage.

i. The combination with a ship, of power means, a gyroscope driventhereby, means whereby said gyroscope mi be driven at different speeds,a motor driven by said power mes. for precessing sai'd gyroscope eitherto stabilize or roll the ship, and means whereby said gyroscope may bedri.en at either of its speeds while said motor is driven at full speed.

In combination with power means, a gyroscope driven thereby and meanswhereby said gyroscope may be driven at different speeds, a motor drivenby said power means for accelerating the normal precession of saidgyroscope or for processing said gyroscope oppositely to its normalprecession, and means intermediate said power means and said gyroscopewhereby said gyro driving means may be controlled.

6. In combination, a gyroscope having a multiple speed induction motor,a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for precessing saidgyroscope driven by said source, and means intermediate said source forcontrolling the direction of said latter motor and operating it at fullspeed while said multiple speed motor is operated at any of its speeds.

7. A rolling device for ships comprising in combination a gyroscopehaving a multiple speed spinning motor mounted on said ship, a motor forprocessing said gyroscope, a source of alternating current for saidmotors, an auxiliary control gyroscope, and means intermediate saidsecond motor and said source of current controlled by saic auxiliarygyroscope whereby said second motor may be run in either direction atfull voltage while said spinning motor is run at either of its speeds.

8. A rolling device for ships comprising in combination a main gyroscopehaving a high and low speed spinning motor, a motor for precessing saidgyroscope, a source of current for said motors, an auxiliary controlgyroscope, and means controlled by said auxiliary gyroscope whereby saidsecond motor will move the main gyroscope in a direction to roll theship while its spinning motor is running at low speed.

9. In combination, a gyroscope having a multiple speed induction motor,a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for precessing saidgyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously controllingthe connection between said motors and said source.

10. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and low speed spinninginotQ a source of alternating current therefor, a mo tor for processingsaid gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneouslyclosing the high speed circuit of said spinning motor and the circuit ofsaid precession motor.

11. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and low speed spinningmotor, a source of alternating current therefor; a motor forprecessingsaid gyroscope driven by said source and means forsimultaneously closing the low speed circuitof said spinning motor andreversingthe circuit of said precession motor.

12. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and a lowspeed spinningmotor, a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for processingsaid gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneouslyclosing the high speed circuit of said spinning motor and the circuit ofsaid precession motorin one position, and simultaneously closing the lowspeed circuit of said spinning motor and reversing the circuit of saidprecession motor in another position. i

13. The combination with a ship of power means, a g'yIOSCOPQ driventhereby, means whereby said gyroscope may be driven at different speeds,a motor driven by said power means for precessing said gyroscope eitherto stabilize or to roll the ship and means for simultaneouslycontrolling both of said motors to stabilize the ship or to roll theship.

14. The combination with a ship of a gyroscope for stabilizing orrolling the same having a high and low speed spinning motor, a source ofalternating current therefor, a motor for processing said gyroscopedriven by said source and means for simultaneously connecting the highspeed winding of said first motor and the precession motor to saidsource in one position to stabilize the ship, and in another positionconnecting the low speed winding of said first motor and reversing thecircuit of the precession motor to roll the ship.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

SHIERFIELD Gm, MYERS.

